Central Mountains - Birch Creek - Part 2
The time and temp in Terreton read 16F at 11:00 on the way up, and 21F at 4:00 on the way back. My destination is about forty miles north of and 1500' higher than Terreton.
The first place I fished was downright cold. My fingers were almost numb before I got the fly tied on - a Quigley Cripple tied on a size 14 2X short emerger hook. Had to walk several hundred yards to reach the spot I wanted to fish. It's a beautiful little riffle with the Beaverhead Mountains as a backdrop.
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Only fished here for about half an hour. I suspect the temps were not any higher than they were in Terreton when I went through, and the "breeze" dropped the chill factor, for sure. Ended up with about ten small rainbows before deciding to head on down the road.
Went back to where I had seen the Bighorn Sheep. Still there. The breeze was not blowing in that area, and the sun was out, so I grabbed the camera and walked a couple hundred yards across the desert, just to the point that the sheep were ready to move away. Not too bad walking - lots of places the snow was less than 6" deep, although in places it had drifted to a foot or foot and a half, well over the top of my hiking shoes.
After getting some pics of the sheep, headed back to one of my favorite stretches of Birch Creek. I've never fished it in January before. In fact, I've never fished this stretch between October and April. Wasn't particularly optimistic about catching anything, but was really looking forward to the fishing.
First spot I fished proved very productive.
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Landed five smaller bows and three little brookies at this spot, and had several hits that didn't hook up.
Walked on downstream a few hundred yards to try a couple of my other favorite spots. Landed three bows at one place, including the two biggest fish of the day, one of which took the Quigley Cripple dry, and one of which took it when fished wet.
The next spot was almost as hot as it normally is in the spring. Somewhere around ten or twelve fishies. Mostly rainbow, but a fair number of brookies in the mix.
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All of that in a little over an hour. Which was just fine with me, because I was starting to feel the chill again. Ended the day with something over thirty trout, mostly bows.
On the way out, I stopped several times to watch the antelope. Would like to have gotten a bit closer, but had to leave it to the zoom or risk not getting any pics at all.
For a few more pics from the day, click on the photo.
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John
Central Mountains - Big Lost River
We are having an exceptionally mild winter, so far. Not sure we will be so happy with it come this summer and on into fall, unless we start getting some serious precipitation soon, but for the time being only one thing to do - enjoy it.
Several years ago I fished the Big Lost River right at the end of January. Looking at the flows over there, and the weather forecast, decided to get an earlier start this year. Thought I would give the upper access, just below the Mackay Dam, a go. Last time over, late last year, the flows were low, the water further downstream was pretty cold, and the fishing was really slow. Figured things might be better up closer to the dam.
When I got out the truck, about 11:00 a.m., I thought it must be March !! Temps were in the mid 30s, with something of a breeze, but a warm one. I knew it would be decent - but this ??
There are a couple nice pools right at the access. The only other time I fished from this access, the larger pool held a bunch of big bows. That was in late March. Today I saw only one fish here, and caught only one, in the smaller pool just above the big one.
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Ended up covering the best part of a mile of water. Only saw one other fish the whole time. Only saw about half a dozen up over about three hours of walking, wading, looking, casting.
The first fish of the day took a t.c.t.k. trailing a Quigley Cripple. After fishing that combination for a while, I decided to go with a soft hackle p.t. fished wet. That approach accounted for the two other fish on the day. All three bows were just like this one.
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After releasing this fish, I could look over my shoulder at this view.
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Did have another one on, and lost it, and had a couple light hits. Not a lot of action. But then again, there is some scenery over there. Click on the photo for more of that reason to fish the Big Lost.
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Probably won't go back over there for a month to six weeks, even if the weather stays mild. Some other places close by to try, which this time of year are generally more promising, assuming the weather cooperates.
John
Central Mountains - Birch Creek
Absolutely beautiful conditions driving over to Birch Creek today. For the past week, there has been a LOT of fog and the temps have been hovering from the low single digits up into the mid 20s, at best. ( Today the time and temp in Terreton read 6F on the way over and 16F on the way home. Suspect it was in the low 20s most of the time I was fishing, but sunny and no breeze at all. )
Every tree, bush, sagebrush, grass clump, flower stalk, and bunches of other things are heavily flocked, and I mean heavily. Or should I say heavenly. Huge old cottonwoods cloaked in pure white from ground level to the very tops, birch trees and weeping willows hanging extraordinary strands of built up frost that is just breathtaking, clumps of sagebrush or individual plants just draped and decorated in the same thick coat of distilled fog.
This pic shows just a taste of the treat we had today - along with a golden eagle.
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I seriously considered stopping any number of times to take some pics of the flocking, but it just seemed there was no way I would be able to capture and convey the magnificance it rendered even the most ordinary things.
Lots of antelope again today. Further down the valley, more spread out, and further from the road than the other day. But certainly just as many.
The fishing today was more about trying out a new fly that I tied yesterday, than actually going fishing. A Coq-de-leon nymph - a very simple fly using only fibers from a Medium Pardo CDL feather, tied on size 16 1X short and size 20 2X short hooks.
The well tested testing riffle.
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The size 16 did reasonably well, taking seven rainbows in about half an hour.
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The size 20 didn't fare as well - probably a bit small ( it's actually about a 24 ) for the water I was fishing. It did take a couple bows in a couple different places.
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BUT - the real treat came on the way back down the valley. FOURTEEN. As in fourteen Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. The same place I saw them the other day - just more of them. Today there were three rams. The one with the full curl, and two others with somewhat smaller, but still quite impressive curls. Two little guys. And the rest adult females. Decided to just watch them with the binoculars today and not pester them by trying to get more pics.
John
South Fork - Lower Trestle Flat
Delightful weather we are having this winter. Yesterday afternoon the temps got into the upper 20s and there was no breeze. Went down to the South Fork hoping to find some rising fish eating midges ( kind of like Joe's article this week ).
Started at the Trestle Run which is pretty reliable for some kind of action on a nice day. Quite a bit of ice in the river - shelf ice breaking off, not slush as such. But not a single rise in the hour or so that I spent there. Fished a nymph for a while with no results.
Decided to take advantage of the situation - no wind and no fish - to experiment with a DT3F line on the rod. Just casting a small dry fly, it handled the 3 wt line reasonably well. Obviously a very different feel when casting such a light line, but with a little more attention and effort, I could manage 40' with reasonable accuracy. The experiment was a success, from my point of view, and encouraging as to the flexibility of the rod ( no pun intended ).
After playing around on the Trestle Run for a while, I decided to head on down to the big flat below Lower Trestle. That is another place where there will always be fish rising, if fish are going to rising anywhere in this stretch of river.
On the walk down, I got to see the four trumpeter swans that I heard and saw on 1-1-09. Three of them were in the river, in some very soft water, with a large company of ducks, and took off before I got in camera range. The other one was up on the beach and hung around long enough for ...
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The Lower Trestle Flat was ......................... flat.
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Hardly ever see it quite like this. Usually there is at least a light breeze to ripple the surface, and any number of fish, mostly whitefish, to add rings for effect. Not a ripple nor a rise.
SKUNKED.
But it was good exercise in a beautiful place. And a long distance shot of a trumpeter swan is better than none at all.
John